The name comes from a Dakota Indian word meaning “sky-tinted water.” Water is part of our state’s very identity.

Lake Superior holds 10 percent of the world's unfrozen fresh surface water. And the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, along with the Superior National Forest, contains 20 percent of all the fresh water in the entire U.S. National Forest System.

But these resources are threatened.

You can act now to protect the Lake Superior watershed and the Boundary Waters from toxic mining pollution.

Join us to protect Minnesota’s clean water as a legacy for your family and for generations to come.

URGENT Stop the Forced PolyMet Land Exchange Rip-off!

Congressman Rick Nolan introduced a bill (HR 3115) to force the PolyMet land exchange down our throats whether or not Superior National Forest public land was undervalued to provide PolyMet with a sweetheart deal.

Please ask Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Al Franken to oppose the bill (HR 3115) which would force the PolyMet land exchange and refrain from any action to initiate or support similar legislation in the Senate.

DEADLINE AUGUST 11 - Make the Boundary Waters Watershed Off-Limits to Sulfide Mining!

Your action is needed now to tell the Federal Government that you support making the Boundary Waters watershed off-limits to sulfide mining on federal lands for at least 20 years and to provide guidance for environmental review of sulfide mining risks.

At the St. Paul Listening Session on July 18, WaterLegacy’s Advocacy Director/Counsel Paula Maccabee provided several recommendations for the Forest Service environmental review of the proposal that would prevent sulfide mining on federal lands near the Boundary Waters. Maccabee emphasized that, “WaterLegacy believes important lessons must be learned from PolyMet’s EIS process. These lessons can be summed up in five words: Don’t make the same mistakes.”

Recent News

WaterLegacy Commentary – PolyMet would be a Climate-change Horror

July 2017

“U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan and others seeking to prevent independent court review of the PolyMet land exchange . . . are feeding us a line — to benefit a small group of multibillion-dollar foreign corporate investors at the expense of climate change, as well as at the expense of our Minnesota water quality and public lands.

“The PolyMet mine project proposed for Minnesota would be a climate-change disaster. Over its 20-year mine plan, PolyMet admits that it would produce as much as 15.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent pollution — more than 10 million tons from its burning of fossil fuels alone.”

Over the July 4th weekend, Cong. Rick Nolan introduced a federal bill (HR 3115) that would force the PolyMet land exchange and prevent the federal court from analyzing whether the land exchange ripped off the public in violation of federal law.

WaterLegacy strongly opposes the bill to compel the PolyMet land exchange: "This kind of circumventing the courts, circumventing due process, sets a very bad precedent for PolyMet, and also leaves the potential that Minnesota taxpayers and users of public land will be ripped off by this project," said Paula Maccabee, advocacy director and attorney for WaterLegacy, one of the groups that filed a lawsuit.

North Shore businessman Bill Hansen explained in a Duluth News Tribune Commentary that the federal bill to force the PolyMet cheats the public.

Wrote Hansen, “I think we all can agree our national forests shouldn't be given to wealthy foreign investors without, at the very least, fair compensation in return. As state Sen. Erik Simonson of Duluth asked in a tweet, "Since when does our government work for foreign corporations?"

WaterLegacy Calls for Hearing and New EIS Analysis due to PolyMet “Bait-and-Switch Sulfide Mine Project Changes

June 2017

On June 29, 2017, WaterLegacy called upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies to require a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) due to new information and changes in the PolyMet sulfide mine design.

“In its applications for state permits, PolyMet has given the citizens of Minnesota a classic bait-and-switch,” explained WaterLegacy Advocacy Director and Counsel Paula Maccabee. “In order to reduce its own upfront capital costs, PolyMet has proposed to do away with technology to reduce the risk of catastrophic tailings dam failure and eliminate the mine site wastewater treatment facility that was a central part of its plan to prevent long-term toxic pollution at the mine site. These changes increase the threat of harm to Minnesota waters and citizens, and require detailed and independent study under federal law.”

On Friday, April 28, in federal district court, Judge Joan Ericksen heard WaterLegacy’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block the transfer of 6,650 acres of Superior National Forest federal land to PolyMet until the court has had a chance to determine whether the proposed PolyMet land exchange violates federal law enacted 40 years ago to protect users of public lands and taxpayers. Judge Ericksen also heard a motion to dismiss filed by PolyMet to throw the case out of court.

The federal courts decisions are pending.

WaterLegacy filed our lawsuit in federal district court on January 30, 2017 claiming that the U.S. Forest service undervalued federal land to give a sweetheart deal to PolyMet in violation of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. We filed our motion for injunction on February 23, 2017.